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Israel National News, Arutz Sheva

Israel National News, Arutz Sheva is one of Israel’s leading Religious Zionist media platforms, providing 24-hour news updates, analysis, Jewish content, video, radio, and special features on security, politics, diplomacy, tourism, health, youth, children’s programming, and more.

“We wanted to focus on the good news, to create a different agenda. Over time, you succumb to a certain amount of pressure from the media if you want to survive, but we constantly try to remain more ethical and positive.”
Rav Zalman Melamed, Makor Rishon

But its story began far from a newsroom.

In the late 1980s, Rabbanit Shulamit Melamed, wife of Rabbi Zalman Melamed, together with Yaakov “Ketzaleh” Katz and Yoel Tzur, founded the original Arutz Sheva radio station. At the time, many religious and national-minded Israelis felt that their values, communities, and love for the Land of Israel were not being represented in the mainstream media.

Arutz Sheva offered them something different.

Broadcasting from the Eretz Hatzvi ship anchored off the coast of Tel Aviv, the station quickly became a beloved alternative voice. Listeners tuned in not only for timely news and current events, but for Torah classes, Jewish thought, Hebrew songs, Hasidic and Mizrachi music, children’s programming, and the sounds of a proud, living Jewish culture.

For many, Arutz Sheva was more than a radio station. It was a place where Torah, Zionism, Israeli life, and national responsibility could be heard together in one voice.

Over the years, the station faced repeated legal and political challenges. Efforts were made to gain official recognition, and legislation allowing Arutz Sheva to broadcast was even passed by the Knesset, only to later be overturned by the Supreme Court. In 2003, after a court ruling declared the broadcasts illegal, the radio station was forced to close.

But the voice of Arutz Sheva did not disappear.

Even before the radio broadcasts ended, Arutz Sheva had begun building its future online, becoming one of Israel’s first digital news platforms. What started on a ship at sea grew into an international media network serving readers in Israel and across the Jewish world.

Today, Israel National News, Arutz Sheva continues that mission through its Hebrew, English, and Russian sites. With journalists in Israel and abroad, it provides news and analysis around the clock, pausing for Shabbat and resuming when Shabbat ends.

Alongside its news coverage, Arutz Sheva offers Torah classes, children’s programming, Jewish music, travel features, family and parenting content, opinion columns, and articles on Jewish and Israeli life.

The platform also carries forward one of its founding principles: giving space to a wide range of voices within the religious and national camp. Despite differences of opinion, Arutz Sheva seeks to unite communities around shared commitments to Torah, the Jewish people, and the Land of Israel.

Supported by the Friends of Arutz Sheva Association, the platform continues the original spirit of the broadcasts: a proud Jewish voice, rooted in Torah, national responsibility, and love for Israel.

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Yehuda Weinberg

Special Projects Manager

Yehuda Weinberg, a homegrown member of Bet El Institutions, is originally from Bet Shemesh and studies at Yeshivat Bet El since 2020, where he focuses on Talmudic Studies, Halakha and Jewish Philosophy.
In his professional capacity, Yehuda has served as a fundraiser for the Institutions since 2022. His role involves donor relations, marketing and coordinating special projects. He is also the Director Of Development for the publishing house, and in the past fundraised for Torah MiTizion.
Yehuda served as a combat soldier in the Golani brigade, spearheaded a partnership with World Mizrachi, and produced a book of Rabbi Melamed in English. He also served as an Israeli delegate for World Bnei Akiva initiatives and founded the Ach Gadol program for Olim children. Yehuda is currently pursuing a BA in Business Management at Machon Lev.
Yehuda views his work for Bet El as a tremendous Zchut, being part of a movement that directly impacts the Israeli nation through the power of Torah, leadership, and cultivation of a committed people.

Yaakov Harnik

CEO

Yaakov Harnik is the CEO of The Bet El Movement since 2020.
Yaakov grew up in Jerusalem and learned in Netiv Meir High School. A homegrown member of Bet El Institutions, Yaakov learned in the Bet El Yeshiva for three years and afterwards enrolled into the Kfir combat brigade where he served as a Squad Commander. After his service he spent an additional year at the yeshiva while working as a counselor at the Bnei Tzvi Yeshiva High School. He subsequently joined The Bet El Movement’s professional staff, serving as a Project Manager and a member of the fundraising team before his appointment as CEO.
Yaakov has a B.A in Business Management from Machon Lev and a Masters of Law with honors from Bar-Ilan University.
During the Iron Swords War, he served in Gaza as part of a Battalion Commander’s Forward Command Team, and was recently promoted to an Infantry Company Commander for miluim.
Yaakov and his wife Yiska live in Bet El together with their four children.

Ketzaleh Yaakov KATZ

Founder and Head Fundraiser 

Ya’akov Katz, known to all as “Katzele”, was born 55 years ago in Jerusalem. A seventh generation Israeli, he graduated from the Bnei Akiva Yeshiva High School in Kfar Haro’eh, and went on to study in Yeshivat Mercaz Harav Kook in Jerusalem.

In 1970, he enlisted in the Israeli Army and volunteered to serve in “Sayeret Shaked”, the IDF’s most elite commando unit. He served under then OC Southern Command General Arik Sharon in the successful campaign to wipe out the Palestinian Arab terrorist infrastructure then dominant in Gaza. In 1972, he completed his officers’ course with distinction and commanded his own commando unit in Sayeret Shaked.

With the outbreak of the Yom Kippur War in 1973, Katzele was second in command in “Koach Patzi”, code name for a 12 man elite commando squad from the Shaked Commando unit comprising only officers. Operating directly under General Arik Sharon, this elite squad carried out difficult and bloody missions primarily behind enemy lines. On the eighth day of the war, General Sharon sent “Koach Patzi” to locate and destroy the largest incursion yet of Egyptian commandos sent in to prevent the Israelis crossing over the Suez Canal. In a key and bloody engagement, the 12 members of “Koach Patzi” wiped out the 70 entrenched and well-armed Egyptian commandos. During the ensuing battle, Katzele took a direct hit in his left hip by an RPG missile that left him near death. While lying on the desert sand seriously wounded, he made a personal oath to G-d, that should he survive, he would devote his life to settlement and education. Subsequently evacuated by General Sharon’s personal helicopter, Katzele fought death for months afterwards in Beilinson Hospital.

It was during that period that he met his future wife Tami, a sociology student at Bar-Ilan University, who had volunteered to work in Beilinson Hospital helping nurse the worst wounded. In December, 1973, Katzele was featured in a special interview in The Jerusalem Post wherein the reporter noted that although the 22 year old commando officer was one of the worst wounded in the ward, he was easily the most popular patient with his incurable optimism, constant smile and encouraging words cheering up his fellow wounded.

After six months in hospital, he returned, on crutches, to study four more years in Yeshivat Mercaz Harav Kook. The year after the war, he and his friends founded the Gush Emunim movement, which subsequently was responsible for effecting a Zionist revolution throughout the Biblical heartland of Israel. As a result, today there are more than half a million Jews living over the former “Green Line” – 250,000 in East Jerusalem, and 275,000 in Judea and Samaria.

With the election of Prime Minister Menachem Begin in 1978, Katzele, with wife and children, were among the first ten families to establish the community of Beit-El in the northern Judean Hills surrounding Jerusalem. Katzele founded the Beit-El Yeshiva Center, an educational center comprising a myriad of institutions with over 1,200 students: the Beit-El Yeshiva and Kollel, Teachers’ College, Har Bracha Hesder Yeshiva, Bnei Tzvi Yeshiva High School, Ra’aya Academy for Young Women (high school), Beit El Pre-Military Academy, as well as Arutz Sheva.

In 1987, Katzele bought an ocean going vessel upon which to set up a national educational radio station, Arutz Sheva (Channel 7). At its peak, Arutz 7 radio broadcasts, in four languages, reached a combined daily listenership of more than one million. Even today with the radio broadcasts via the internet alone, more than 100,000 Israelis continue to listen faithfully.   Its multi-media (print, audio & video) and multi-language(English, Hebrew, Russian & French) web sites and daily email news service is one of the largest out of Israel. In addition, Arutz 7 Israel National News (INN-TV) produces daily TV news and featured for broadcast on the internet and cable TV, and in 2002, Katzele founded the weekly Israeli newspaper, B’Sheva, Israel’s third largest newspaper (160,000 circulation) and the leading newspaper to the national religious and haredi public.

In 1990-92, Katzele served as deputy to then Minister of Housing & Construction Arik Sharon, and actively participated in the absorption of the mass influx of Russian olim. He was directly responsible for the construction of upwards of 35,000 housing units in East Jerusalem, Yesha and the Golan. These homes enabled the Jewish population over the former “Green Line” to more than double.

He is married with seven children (four married), and five (thus far) grandchildren. His four eldest sons have followed in his footsteps and have served and are serving in elite commando units in the IDF.

Baruch Gordon

Director of Development

Baruch Gordon founded the Arutz Sheva – IsraelNationalNews.com website in 1995, and served as Manager and News Director of its English Media Department for 14 years.
He currently serves as Director of Development for the Israel Defense Forces Preparatory Academy in Bet El and for The Bet El Movement. During the 2009 Knesset term of former Knesset Member Yaakov “Ketzaleh” Katz, Baruch served as his assistant.
Baruch began his Torah studies at Jerusalem’s Machon Meir and continued at Yeshivat Bet El, where for ten years he learned and later taught, serving as Dean of the Program for Overseas Students and Dean of the Program for IDF Veterans.
He founded a smicha program in Bet El for working residents. In 2017, he received smicha from Rav Zalman Nechemia Goldberg (zt”l) in Shabbat, Niddah, and Issur V’Heter, and is certified by the Dor V’Dor Institute to prepare grooms for marriage.
Baruch served in the IDF Search and Rescue Unit.
Since 2019, he has delivered a weekly Parsha video commentary as part of the “Israel National Torah” newsletter, which reaches thousands.
He also directs the West Bank Jewish Population Stats research group, which publishes precise data on Jewish residents in the West Bank and a monthly newsletter tracking declining support for the two-state solution. Subscribe to Bet El’s email lists: http://BetElinstitutions.com/subscribe/
Born and raised in Memphis, Tennessee, Baruch was elected International President of United Synagogue Youth in 1980 in high school and soon after became religious while studying at Tufts University.

Baruch Gordon

Director of Development

Baruch Gordon founded the Arutz Sheva – IsraelNationalNews.com website in 1995, and served as Manager and News Director of its English Media Department for 14 years.
He currently serves as Director of Development for the Israel Defense Forces Preparatory Academy in Bet El and for The Bet El Movement. During the 2009 Knesset term of former Knesset Member Yaakov “Ketzaleh” Katz, Baruch served as his assistant.
Baruch began his Torah studies at Jerusalem’s Machon Meir and continued at Yeshivat Bet El, where for ten years he learned and later taught, serving as Dean of the Program for Overseas Students and Dean of the Program for IDF Veterans.
He founded a smicha program in Bet El for working residents. In 2017, he received smicha from Rav Zalman Nechemia Goldberg (zt”l) in Shabbat, Niddah, and Issur V’Heter, and is certified by the Dor V’Dor Institute to prepare grooms for marriage.
Baruch served in the IDF Search and Rescue Unit.
Since 2019, he has delivered a weekly Parsha video commentary as part of the “Israel National Torah” newsletter, which reaches thousands.
He also directs the West Bank Jewish Population Stats research group, which publishes precise data on Jewish residents in the West Bank and a monthly newsletter tracking declining support for the two-state solution. Subscribe to Bet El’s email lists: http://BetElinstitutions.com/subscribe/
Born and raised in Memphis, Tennessee, Baruch was elected International President of United Synagogue Youth in 1980 in high school and soon after became religious while studying at Tufts University.

Yehuda Weinberg

Special Projects Manager

Yehuda Weinberg, a homegrown member of Bet El Institutions, is originally from Bet Shemesh and studies at Yeshivat Bet El since 2020, where he focuses on Talmudic Studies, Halakha and Jewish Philosophy.
In his professional capacity, Yehuda has served as a fundraiser for the Institutions since 2022. His role involves donor relations, marketing and coordinating special projects. He is also the Director Of Development for the publishing house, and in the past fundraised for Torah MiTizion.
Yehuda served as a combat soldier in the Golani brigade, spearheaded a partnership with World Mizrachi, and produced a book of Rabbi Melamed in English. He also served as an Israeli delegate for World Bnei Akiva initiatives and founded the Ach Gadol program for Olim children. Yehuda is currently pursuing a BA in Business Management at Machon Lev.
Yehuda views his work for Bet El as a tremendous Zchut, being part of a movement that directly impacts the Israeli nation through the power of Torah, leadership, and cultivation of a committed people.

Yaakov Harnik

CEO

Yaakov Harnik is the CEO of The Bet El Movement since 2020.
Yaakov grew up in Jerusalem and learned in Netiv Meir High School. A homegrown member of Bet El Institutions, Yaakov learned in the Bet El Yeshiva for three years and afterwards enrolled into the Kfir combat brigade where he served as a Squad Commander. After his service he spent an additional year at the yeshiva while working as a counselor at the Bnei Tzvi Yeshiva High School. He subsequently joined The Bet El Movement’s professional staff, serving as a Project Manager and a member of the fundraising team before his appointment as CEO.
Yaakov has a B.A in Business Management from Machon Lev and a Masters of Law with honors from Bar-Ilan University.
During the Iron Swords War, he served in Gaza as part of a Battalion Commander’s Forward Command Team, and was recently promoted to an Infantry Company Commander for miluim.
Yaakov and his wife Yiska live in Bet El together with their four children.

Ketzaleh Yaakov KATZ

Founder and Head Fundraiser 

Ya’akov Katz, known to all as “Katzele”, was born 55 years ago in Jerusalem. A seventh generation Israeli, he graduated from the Bnei Akiva Yeshiva High School in Kfar Haro’eh, and went on to study in Yeshivat Mercaz Harav Kook in Jerusalem.

In 1970, he enlisted in the Israeli Army and volunteered to serve in “Sayeret Shaked”, the IDF’s most elite commando unit. He served under then OC Southern Command General Arik Sharon in the successful campaign to wipe out the Palestinian Arab terrorist infrastructure then dominant in Gaza. In 1972, he completed his officers’ course with distinction and commanded his own commando unit in Sayeret Shaked.

With the outbreak of the Yom Kippur War in 1973, Katzele was second in command in “Koach Patzi”, code name for a 12 man elite commando squad from the Shaked Commando unit comprising only officers. Operating directly under General Arik Sharon, this elite squad carried out difficult and bloody missions primarily behind enemy lines. On the eighth day of the war, General Sharon sent “Koach Patzi” to locate and destroy the largest incursion yet of Egyptian commandos sent in to prevent the Israelis crossing over the Suez Canal. In a key and bloody engagement, the 12 members of “Koach Patzi” wiped out the 70 entrenched and well-armed Egyptian commandos. During the ensuing battle, Katzele took a direct hit in his left hip by an RPG missile that left him near death. While lying on the desert sand seriously wounded, he made a personal oath to G-d, that should he survive, he would devote his life to settlement and education. Subsequently evacuated by General Sharon’s personal helicopter, Katzele fought death for months afterwards in Beilinson Hospital.

It was during that period that he met his future wife Tami, a sociology student at Bar-Ilan University, who had volunteered to work in Beilinson Hospital helping nurse the worst wounded. In December, 1973, Katzele was featured in a special interview in The Jerusalem Post wherein the reporter noted that although the 22 year old commando officer was one of the worst wounded in the ward, he was easily the most popular patient with his incurable optimism, constant smile and encouraging words cheering up his fellow wounded.

After six months in hospital, he returned, on crutches, to study four more years in Yeshivat Mercaz Harav Kook. The year after the war, he and his friends founded the Gush Emunim movement, which subsequently was responsible for effecting a Zionist revolution throughout the Biblical heartland of Israel. As a result, today there are more than half a million Jews living over the former “Green Line” – 250,000 in East Jerusalem, and 275,000 in Judea and Samaria.

With the election of Prime Minister Menachem Begin in 1978, Katzele, with wife and children, were among the first ten families to establish the community of Beit-El in the northern Judean Hills surrounding Jerusalem. Katzele founded the Beit-El Yeshiva Center, an educational center comprising a myriad of institutions with over 1,200 students: the Beit-El Yeshiva and Kollel, Teachers’ College, Har Bracha Hesder Yeshiva, Bnei Tzvi Yeshiva High School, Ra’aya Academy for Young Women (high school), Beit El Pre-Military Academy, as well as Arutz Sheva.

In 1987, Katzele bought an ocean going vessel upon which to set up a national educational radio station, Arutz Sheva (Channel 7). At its peak, Arutz 7 radio broadcasts, in four languages, reached a combined daily listenership of more than one million. Even today with the radio broadcasts via the internet alone, more than 100,000 Israelis continue to listen faithfully.   Its multi-media (print, audio & video) and multi-language(English, Hebrew, Russian & French) web sites and daily email news service is one of the largest out of Israel. In addition, Arutz 7 Israel National News (INN-TV) produces daily TV news and featured for broadcast on the internet and cable TV, and in 2002, Katzele founded the weekly Israeli newspaper, B’Sheva, Israel’s third largest newspaper (160,000 circulation) and the leading newspaper to the national religious and haredi public.

In 1990-92, Katzele served as deputy to then Minister of Housing & Construction Arik Sharon, and actively participated in the absorption of the mass influx of Russian olim. He was directly responsible for the construction of upwards of 35,000 housing units in East Jerusalem, Yesha and the Golan. These homes enabled the Jewish population over the former “Green Line” to more than double.

He is married with seven children (four married), and five (thus far) grandchildren. His four eldest sons have followed in his footsteps and have served and are serving in elite commando units in the IDF.

Ketzaleh Yaakov KATZ

Founder and Head Fundraiser 

Ya’akov Katz, known to all as “Katzele”, was born 55 years ago in Jerusalem. A seventh generation Israeli, he graduated from the Bnei Akiva Yeshiva High School in Kfar Haro’eh, and went on to study in Yeshivat Mercaz Harav Kook in Jerusalem.

In 1970, he enlisted in the Israeli Army and volunteered to serve in “Sayeret Shaked”, the IDF’s most elite commando unit. He served under then OC Southern Command General Arik Sharon in the successful campaign to wipe out the Palestinian Arab terrorist infrastructure then dominant in Gaza. In 1972, he completed his officers’ course with distinction and commanded his own commando unit in Sayeret Shaked.

With the outbreak of the Yom Kippur War in 1973, Katzele was second in command in “Koach Patzi”, code name for a 12 man elite commando squad from the Shaked Commando unit comprising only officers. Operating directly under General Arik Sharon, this elite squad carried out difficult and bloody missions primarily behind enemy lines. On the eighth day of the war, General Sharon sent “Koach Patzi” to locate and destroy the largest incursion yet of Egyptian commandos sent in to prevent the Israelis crossing over the Suez Canal. In a key and bloody engagement, the 12 members of “Koach Patzi” wiped out the 70 entrenched and well-armed Egyptian commandos. During the ensuing battle, Katzele took a direct hit in his left hip by an RPG missile that left him near death. While lying on the desert sand seriously wounded, he made a personal oath to G-d, that should he survive, he would devote his life to settlement and education. Subsequently evacuated by General Sharon’s personal helicopter, Katzele fought death for months afterwards in Beilinson Hospital.

It was during that period that he met his future wife Tami, a sociology student at Bar-Ilan University, who had volunteered to work in Beilinson Hospital helping nurse the worst wounded. In December, 1973, Katzele was featured in a special interview in The Jerusalem Post wherein the reporter noted that although the 22 year old commando officer was one of the worst wounded in the ward, he was easily the most popular patient with his incurable optimism, constant smile and encouraging words cheering up his fellow wounded.

After six months in hospital, he returned, on crutches, to study four more years in Yeshivat Mercaz Harav Kook. The year after the war, he and his friends founded the Gush Emunim movement, which subsequently was responsible for effecting a Zionist revolution throughout the Biblical heartland of Israel. As a result, today there are more than half a million Jews living over the former “Green Line” – 250,000 in East Jerusalem, and 275,000 in Judea and Samaria.

With the election of Prime Minister Menachem Begin in 1978, Katzele, with wife and children, were among the first ten families to establish the community of Beit-El in the northern Judean Hills surrounding Jerusalem. Katzele founded the Beit-El Yeshiva Center, an educational center comprising a myriad of institutions with over 1,200 students: the Beit-El Yeshiva and Kollel, Teachers’ College, Har Bracha Hesder Yeshiva, Bnei Tzvi Yeshiva High School, Ra’aya Academy for Young Women (high school), Beit El Pre-Military Academy, as well as Arutz Sheva.

In 1987, Katzele bought an ocean going vessel upon which to set up a national educational radio station, Arutz Sheva (Channel 7). At its peak, Arutz 7 radio broadcasts, in four languages, reached a combined daily listenership of more than one million. Even today with the radio broadcasts via the internet alone, more than 100,000 Israelis continue to listen faithfully.   Its multi-media (print, audio & video) and multi-language(English, Hebrew, Russian & French) web sites and daily email news service is one of the largest out of Israel. In addition, Arutz 7 Israel National News (INN-TV) produces daily TV news and featured for broadcast on the internet and cable TV, and in 2002, Katzele founded the weekly Israeli newspaper, B’Sheva, Israel’s third largest newspaper (160,000 circulation) and the leading newspaper to the national religious and haredi public.

In 1990-92, Katzele served as deputy to then Minister of Housing & Construction Arik Sharon, and actively participated in the absorption of the mass influx of Russian olim. He was directly responsible for the construction of upwards of 35,000 housing units in East Jerusalem, Yesha and the Golan. These homes enabled the Jewish population over the former “Green Line” to more than double.

He is married with seven children (four married), and five (thus far) grandchildren. His four eldest sons have followed in his footsteps and have served and are serving in elite commando units in the IDF.

Baruch Gordon

Director of Development

Baruch Gordon founded the Arutz Sheva – IsraelNationalNews.com website in 1995, and served as Manager and News Director of its English Media Department for 14 years.
He currently serves as Director of Development for the Israel Defense Forces Preparatory Academy in Bet El and for The Bet El Movement. During the 2009 Knesset term of former Knesset Member Yaakov “Ketzaleh” Katz, Baruch served as his assistant.
Baruch began his Torah studies at Jerusalem’s Machon Meir and continued at Yeshivat Bet El, where for ten years he learned and later taught, serving as Dean of the Program for Overseas Students and Dean of the Program for IDF Veterans.
He founded a smicha program in Bet El for working residents. In 2017, he received smicha from Rav Zalman Nechemia Goldberg (zt”l) in Shabbat, Niddah, and Issur V’Heter, and is certified by the Dor V’Dor Institute to prepare grooms for marriage.
Baruch served in the IDF Search and Rescue Unit.
Since 2019, he has delivered a weekly Parsha video commentary as part of the “Israel National Torah” newsletter, which reaches thousands.
He also directs the West Bank Jewish Population Stats research group, which publishes precise data on Jewish residents in the West Bank and a monthly newsletter tracking declining support for the two-state solution. Subscribe to Bet El’s email lists: http://BetElinstitutions.com/subscribe/
Born and raised in Memphis, Tennessee, Baruch was elected International President of United Synagogue Youth in 1980 in high school and soon after became religious while studying at Tufts University.

Yehuda Weinberg

Special Projects Manager

Yehuda Weinberg, a homegrown member of Bet El Institutions, is originally from Bet Shemesh and studies at Yeshivat Bet El since 2020, where he focuses on Talmudic Studies, Halakha and Jewish Philosophy.
In his professional capacity, Yehuda has served as a fundraiser for the Institutions since 2022. His role involves donor relations, marketing and coordinating special projects. He is also the Director Of Development for the publishing house, and in the past fundraised for Torah MiTizion.
Yehuda served as a combat soldier in the Golani brigade, spearheaded a partnership with World Mizrachi, and produced a book of Rabbi Melamed in English. He also served as an Israeli delegate for World Bnei Akiva initiatives and founded the Ach Gadol program for Olim children. Yehuda is currently pursuing a BA in Business Management at Machon Lev.
Yehuda views his work for Bet El as a tremendous Zchut, being part of a movement that directly impacts the Israeli nation through the power of Torah, leadership, and cultivation of a committed people.

Yaakov Harnik

CEO

Yaakov Harnik is the CEO of The Bet El Movement since 2020.
Yaakov grew up in Jerusalem and learned in Netiv Meir High School. A homegrown member of Bet El Institutions, Yaakov learned in the Bet El Yeshiva for three years and afterwards enrolled into the Kfir combat brigade where he served as a Squad Commander. After his service he spent an additional year at the yeshiva while working as a counselor at the Bnei Tzvi Yeshiva High School. He subsequently joined The Bet El Movement’s professional staff, serving as a Project Manager and a member of the fundraising team before his appointment as CEO.
Yaakov has a B.A in Business Management from Machon Lev and a Masters of Law with honors from Bar-Ilan University.
During the Iron Swords War, he served in Gaza as part of a Battalion Commander’s Forward Command Team, and was recently promoted to an Infantry Company Commander for miluim.
Yaakov and his wife Yiska live in Bet El together with their four children.

Yaakov Harnik

CEO

Yaakov Harnik is the CEO of The Bet El Movement since 2020.
Yaakov grew up in Jerusalem and learned in Netiv Meir High School. A homegrown member of Bet El Institutions, Yaakov learned in the Bet El Yeshiva for three years and afterwards enrolled into the Kfir combat brigade where he served as a Squad Commander. After his service he spent an additional year at the yeshiva while working as a counselor at the Bnei Tzvi Yeshiva High School. He subsequently joined The Bet El Movement’s professional staff, serving as a Project Manager and a member of the fundraising team before his appointment as CEO.
Yaakov has a B.A in Business Management from Machon Lev and a Masters of Law with honors from Bar-Ilan University.
During the Iron Swords War, he served in Gaza as part of a Battalion Commander’s Forward Command Team, and was recently promoted to an Infantry Company Commander for miluim.
Yaakov and his wife Yiska live in Bet El together with their four children.

Ketzaleh Yaakov KATZ

Founder and Head Fundraiser 

Ya’akov Katz, known to all as “Katzele”, was born 55 years ago in Jerusalem. A seventh generation Israeli, he graduated from the Bnei Akiva Yeshiva High School in Kfar Haro’eh, and went on to study in Yeshivat Mercaz Harav Kook in Jerusalem.

In 1970, he enlisted in the Israeli Army and volunteered to serve in “Sayeret Shaked”, the IDF’s most elite commando unit. He served under then OC Southern Command General Arik Sharon in the successful campaign to wipe out the Palestinian Arab terrorist infrastructure then dominant in Gaza. In 1972, he completed his officers’ course with distinction and commanded his own commando unit in Sayeret Shaked.

With the outbreak of the Yom Kippur War in 1973, Katzele was second in command in “Koach Patzi”, code name for a 12 man elite commando squad from the Shaked Commando unit comprising only officers. Operating directly under General Arik Sharon, this elite squad carried out difficult and bloody missions primarily behind enemy lines. On the eighth day of the war, General Sharon sent “Koach Patzi” to locate and destroy the largest incursion yet of Egyptian commandos sent in to prevent the Israelis crossing over the Suez Canal. In a key and bloody engagement, the 12 members of “Koach Patzi” wiped out the 70 entrenched and well-armed Egyptian commandos. During the ensuing battle, Katzele took a direct hit in his left hip by an RPG missile that left him near death. While lying on the desert sand seriously wounded, he made a personal oath to G-d, that should he survive, he would devote his life to settlement and education. Subsequently evacuated by General Sharon’s personal helicopter, Katzele fought death for months afterwards in Beilinson Hospital.

It was during that period that he met his future wife Tami, a sociology student at Bar-Ilan University, who had volunteered to work in Beilinson Hospital helping nurse the worst wounded. In December, 1973, Katzele was featured in a special interview in The Jerusalem Post wherein the reporter noted that although the 22 year old commando officer was one of the worst wounded in the ward, he was easily the most popular patient with his incurable optimism, constant smile and encouraging words cheering up his fellow wounded.

After six months in hospital, he returned, on crutches, to study four more years in Yeshivat Mercaz Harav Kook. The year after the war, he and his friends founded the Gush Emunim movement, which subsequently was responsible for effecting a Zionist revolution throughout the Biblical heartland of Israel. As a result, today there are more than half a million Jews living over the former “Green Line” – 250,000 in East Jerusalem, and 275,000 in Judea and Samaria.

With the election of Prime Minister Menachem Begin in 1978, Katzele, with wife and children, were among the first ten families to establish the community of Beit-El in the northern Judean Hills surrounding Jerusalem. Katzele founded the Beit-El Yeshiva Center, an educational center comprising a myriad of institutions with over 1,200 students: the Beit-El Yeshiva and Kollel, Teachers’ College, Har Bracha Hesder Yeshiva, Bnei Tzvi Yeshiva High School, Ra’aya Academy for Young Women (high school), Beit El Pre-Military Academy, as well as Arutz Sheva.

In 1987, Katzele bought an ocean going vessel upon which to set up a national educational radio station, Arutz Sheva (Channel 7). At its peak, Arutz 7 radio broadcasts, in four languages, reached a combined daily listenership of more than one million. Even today with the radio broadcasts via the internet alone, more than 100,000 Israelis continue to listen faithfully.   Its multi-media (print, audio & video) and multi-language(English, Hebrew, Russian & French) web sites and daily email news service is one of the largest out of Israel. In addition, Arutz 7 Israel National News (INN-TV) produces daily TV news and featured for broadcast on the internet and cable TV, and in 2002, Katzele founded the weekly Israeli newspaper, B’Sheva, Israel’s third largest newspaper (160,000 circulation) and the leading newspaper to the national religious and haredi public.

In 1990-92, Katzele served as deputy to then Minister of Housing & Construction Arik Sharon, and actively participated in the absorption of the mass influx of Russian olim. He was directly responsible for the construction of upwards of 35,000 housing units in East Jerusalem, Yesha and the Golan. These homes enabled the Jewish population over the former “Green Line” to more than double.

He is married with seven children (four married), and five (thus far) grandchildren. His four eldest sons have followed in his footsteps and have served and are serving in elite commando units in the IDF.

Baruch Gordon

Director of Development

Baruch Gordon founded the Arutz Sheva – IsraelNationalNews.com website in 1995, and served as Manager and News Director of its English Media Department for 14 years.
He currently serves as Director of Development for the Israel Defense Forces Preparatory Academy in Bet El and for The Bet El Movement. During the 2009 Knesset term of former Knesset Member Yaakov “Ketzaleh” Katz, Baruch served as his assistant.
Baruch began his Torah studies at Jerusalem’s Machon Meir and continued at Yeshivat Bet El, where for ten years he learned and later taught, serving as Dean of the Program for Overseas Students and Dean of the Program for IDF Veterans.
He founded a smicha program in Bet El for working residents. In 2017, he received smicha from Rav Zalman Nechemia Goldberg (zt”l) in Shabbat, Niddah, and Issur V’Heter, and is certified by the Dor V’Dor Institute to prepare grooms for marriage.
Baruch served in the IDF Search and Rescue Unit.
Since 2019, he has delivered a weekly Parsha video commentary as part of the “Israel National Torah” newsletter, which reaches thousands.
He also directs the West Bank Jewish Population Stats research group, which publishes precise data on Jewish residents in the West Bank and a monthly newsletter tracking declining support for the two-state solution. Subscribe to Bet El’s email lists: http://BetElinstitutions.com/subscribe/
Born and raised in Memphis, Tennessee, Baruch was elected International President of United Synagogue Youth in 1980 in high school and soon after became religious while studying at Tufts University.

Yehuda Weinberg

Special Projects Manager

Yehuda Weinberg, a homegrown member of Bet El Institutions, is originally from Bet Shemesh and studies at Yeshivat Bet El since 2020, where he focuses on Talmudic Studies, Halakha and Jewish Philosophy.
In his professional capacity, Yehuda has served as a fundraiser for the Institutions since 2022. His role involves donor relations, marketing and coordinating special projects. He is also the Director Of Development for the publishing house, and in the past fundraised for Torah MiTizion.
Yehuda served as a combat soldier in the Golani brigade, spearheaded a partnership with World Mizrachi, and produced a book of Rabbi Melamed in English. He also served as an Israeli delegate for World Bnei Akiva initiatives and founded the Ach Gadol program for Olim children. Yehuda is currently pursuing a BA in Business Management at Machon Lev.
Yehuda views his work for Bet El as a tremendous Zchut, being part of a movement that directly impacts the Israeli nation through the power of Torah, leadership, and cultivation of a committed people.